Editor,
Dual endorsements are when a politician or interest group endorses more than one candidate for the same elected office. I have followed politics closely for more than 50 years but never heard of such a thing until Oct. 19. My naive belief was that an endorsement meant that a person or group endorsed a candidate and not their opponent.
My naivete was confirmed when I checked and found that Jackie Speier and Jerry Hill had endorsed both Warren Lieberman and Julia Mates for Belmont mayor. I checked further and found that Belmont Councilmember Tom McCune also endorsed both candidates.
I called Jackie Speier’s office and was told that Speier sometimes issues dual endorsements if both candidates request them and one is not clearly better than the other. I asked Jon Mays of the Daily Journal about this and he confirmed that dual endorsements do happen. That was a shock to me. However, Mays said the Journal never issues dual endorsements.
I believe dual endorsements do more harm than good because voters who see an endorsement by a well-respected politician like Speier may not even check out the other candidate. To be responsible, I believe endorsements should be withheld if there is not a clear choice, so voters will do their own research.
While voters should never pick candidates based solely on endorsements, I wrote this letter to make readers aware that endorsements may be even more meaningless than they imagine.
Tim E. Strinden
Belmont
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(1) comment
Good food for thought! Thank you.
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